New Zealander and German take home gold medals on third day of UCI Worlds

The third day of the UCI Road World Championships on Tuesday featured another pair of individual time trials: the men’s junior race and the women’s elite race.

Both races were 29.9 kilometers long (almost 18.6 miles), winding throughout Richmond and finishing at the intersection of Broad and 5^th streets.

In the women’s race, Linda Melanie Villumsen of New Zealand beat out Anna Van Der Breggen of the Netherlands by less than three seconds to take first place with a time of 40:29.87. Villsumsen has recorded several top ten finishes in the UCI Worlds in years past, but this marks her first outright win in this race. She also beat defending world champion and widespread favorite Lisa Brennauer, who finished in third place only five seconds behind Villumsen.

The U.S. had a strong showing, with Kristin Armstrong and Evelyn Stevens claiming fifth and sixth place. Armstrong’s time of 40:50.45 held up as the top time for most of the day, but was eventually surpassed by cyclists in later heats as conditions improved throughout the day. Team USA also saw Carmen Small take 14^th place out of the 44 cyclists.

On the men’s side, Germany’s Leo Appelt took the gold with a time of 37:45.01. Appelt’s time would have earned him fourth place in the men’s under-23 race the day earlier. He won rather comfortably, with no other cyclist coming within 15 seconds of his time.

Team USA had sigificant representation in this race as well with Adrien Costa taking second place and Brandon McNulty finishing third. Costa’s 38:02.23 was the only time that came close to Appelt, with McNulty finishing almost a minute behind first place.

The only time trial remaining is the men’s elite, which takes place on Wednesday. That race will start near King’s Dominion amusement park and last 53.5 kilometers, the longest race so far by a sizable margin.